West Coast Solar

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Do you monitor the PV system 24/7?

Modified on: Fri, 25 Aug, 2017 at 11:54 AM

We do our best to utilize remote monitoring of your solar energy system so you can get the most out of it. We receive alerts from SolarEdge daily that we investigate. Many of these alerts are resolved remotely.

We have installed 1000’s of systems and it is not possible to watch each system daily.

As with anything electronic, especially when it relies on a communication connection, there are limitations. Although we do our best to stay on top of any alerts that your system may produce so we can proactively address them, the best way for you to get the most out of your system is for you also to monitor it at least once a month.

Consider this:

Many cars today have a communication system that allows car companies to monitor them. However, if you purchase a new car and you see an alert on your dash, you can get the most out of the car by making sure the car dealer knows about it so they can address it. The same applies to solar.

A solar energy monitoring system is an aid to ensure that the solar energy system is working properly but it is not a perfect solution. The best solution is to proactively check your system regularly. We recommend that, at the very least, when you receive your monthly electricity statement from the utility company that you check your system by looking at the display on the inverter and checking the monitoring portal.

Although we will be checking your system remotely, we do not always receive an alert on system performance. Therefore, it is important to note that, if your system should stop working for any reason, you must let us know as quickly as possible. The best way to do that is by regularly checking your system performance.

Please note that the monitoring portal is updated every few hours. When viewing the production of your system, you may not be viewing it in “real time”.

Solar production will vary throughout the day and year. There are many factors that may affect solar production including length of day, temperature, cloudy and/or rainy days, shading, etc. – even solar modules may have some variations as no two modules are exactly the same. It is normal to go through variations throughout the day and year. By regularly monitoring your system you will get to learn the variation in history of solar production for your system so those variations do not become alarming.